News India Times
August 21, 2015
6
– that’s all you need to know
Special Report
By Suman Guha Mozumder
run Kumar Singh,
India’s Ambassador to
the United States,
believes U.S.-India
relations have moved
up the ladder from the initial
buyer-seller relationship to co-
development and co-produc-
tion mutually benefitting both
the countries, especially in the
field of defense.
This new relationship ranges
from New Delhi acquiring U.S.
technology, to development of
such technologies in India,
thanks to many niche areas of
research and development of
interest to bothWashington and
New Delhi.
JerseyDiscussion
“One area that we have seen
tremendous cooperation in the
last four/five years is in terms of
defense sector cooperation. So
far, we have bought $10 billion
worth of defense supplies from
the U.S., more than what we
have done from any other coun-
try,” Singh said at a special
reception hosted by prominent
Indian-American leaders and
businesses in New Jersey Aug. 9.
“Some of the things we got from
the U.S. during this period
include — C-17, C-130 aircraft
which were very useful to us,”
he noted.
“But we are now going
beyond the buyer-seller rela-
tionship to also look at co-
development and co-produc-
tion. Under the leadership of
Defense Secretary (Ashton)
Carter we have worked out six
pathfinder projects for coopera-
tion in defense. Two have been
already been finalized, and two
are already making good
progress,” Singh said. “This is an
indication of how we are mov-
ing away from just the initial
stages of cooperation to now
doing co-development of tech-
nologies,” the ambassador said.
The community-hosted
meeting held at Renaissance
Hotel in Iselin, N.J., was the first
of its kind since Singh took
charge as India’s envoy in May
this year. The event was organ-
ized by the Indian Consulate in
NewYork in association with
ParikhWorldwide Media, head-
ed Dr. Sudhir Parikh, publisher
of Desi Talk and winner of
India’s Padma Shri award, as
well as the business community
of New Jersey.
Parikh set the tone for the
meeting by noting that the
world had come a long way
from the time of Rudyard
Kipling who said “East is East,
West isWest. And the twain shall
never meet.
“Obviously, Kipling didn’t
have access. He was not con-
nected. He was not wired. In
this globalized Internet age, the
twain shall meet, and the twain
shall trade,” Parikh said intro-
ducing Ambassador Singh to the
gathering.
For the next hour the
Ambassador explained in detail
why and how this was going to
happen. His speech was fol-
lowed by a brief question and
answer session during which he
spelled out why India is as
important to the U.S. as
Washington is to New Delhi.
“The U.S. leaders have said
time and again that they see the
rise of India in the U.S. interest,
and Prime Minister Narendra
Modi has referred to this as a
relationship between natural
allies. It is from that perspective
that we approach the bilateral
relationship,” Singh said. That
sentiment undergirds the visible
increase in the bilateral relation-
ship, he noted.
The ambassador highlighted
India’s achievements in space
pointing to last year’s successful
launch of a space vehicle to
Mars. “Today companies like
Cisco and others say that they
are going to export products
developed by India to other
countries and our Prime
Minister has focused on manu-
facturing in India,” he noted.
Over the past one year, India’s
rate of GDP growth has been
more than seven percent and in
the coming years it will
approach eight percent, he said.
Foreign Direct Investment had
seen a 30 percent increase in
the past one year and Foreign
Institutional Investment a four
hundred percent increase. “It’s a
reflection of how efforts (for
progress and development) are
being made in India these
days,” the ambassador said.
Interest In India
He complimented Parikh for
helping to arrange the interac-
tion and thanked all for being
present on a Sunday for the dis-
cussions. “It shows the interest
in India and taking things for-
ward with India.”
The event was attended
among others by Consul
General of India in NewYork
Dnyaneshwar M. Mulay as well
as H.R Shah, chairman of T.V.
A
‘India Has Demand, Democracy
And Demography In Its Favor’
Above, Ambassador Singh speaking at a reception hosted by the Federation of Indian
Associations at the Royal Albert Palace in Ford, New Jersey, Aug 9. Below, Dr. Parikh,
flanked by Ambassador Singh and H.R. Shah, at the Renaissance Hotel luncheon.
The business lunch, attended by over 20 community and business leaders,
including CEOs from New Jersey and New York.
Jugesh Soni
Ambassador Arun Singh In New Jersey
Above, from left, Upendra Chivukula, commissioner on the New Jersey Board of Public
Utilities; Ramesh Patel, chairman of Federation of Indian Associations; Consul General
of India in New York Dnyaneshwar M. Mulay; India’s Ambassador to the U.S. Arun
Kumar Singh; Dr. Sudhir Parikh, publisher of Desi Talk and Padma Shri award winner,
and T.V. Asia Chairman H.R. Shah at a luncheon meeting organized by the Indian
Consulate, in association with the business community of New Jersey and the Parikh
Worldwide Media company at Renaissance Hotel In Iselin, New Jersey, Aug.9.
Kamal Joshi
Jugesh Soni
